Pet-E-429
Principles of Enhanced Oil Recovery
Low Salinity Water Flooding
A critical Review
Arshad Raza, Ph.D.
Petroleum and Gas Engineering Department
UET Lahore, Pakistan
1
Quote of the day
The current era demands not to be a supertasker but
to be a multi-tasker.
Don’t be just a Petroleum Engineer. Be a Diverse
Engineer who can engineer (master) anything.
2
Agenda
• Low Salinity Water Flooding (LSW)
• Factors affecting LSW
• Proposed Mechanism for increased oil recovery by
LSW
• Laboratory Experimentation and Analysis
• Field Experimentation and Analysis
• Conclusions
3
Water Flooding
A method of secondary recovery in which water is injected
into the reservoir formation to displace residual oil.
4
Reason for Water Flooding
• Increase Oil Production Rate
• Increase Oil Recovery
• Increase Reservoir Pressure
5
Salinity
• Concentration of Salt in Water
• Salt Dissolves in water to make ions (Na+, Cl-)
• Cation (Na+) is the concerned ion
• More Salt
High • More Ionic
Salinity concentration in Water
• Less Salt
Low • Less Ionic
Salinity Concentration in Water
6
Low Salinity Water Flooding
(LSW)
• Injection of Low Salinity Water in the reservoir to increase oil
recovery (EOR Process)
History
• Bernard and co-workers, discovered an increase in oil recovery
when sodium chloride (NaCl) brine in the range of 0 to 1% was
used compared to distilled water.
• Bernard injected different concentrations of NaCl brines and
fresh water into the sand packs of Berea core type.
• Experiments indicated that the oil recovery was almost
unaffected when the NaCl concentration was in the range of 1
to 15%.
• Incremental oil recovery was observed when the concentration
of NaCl was between 0 and 1%.
7
Low Salinity Water Flooding
(LSW)
Experimentation
• Bernard and other scientists including Jhadhundan, Morrow,
Yildz et al, Tang and Morrow conducted further
experimentation on LSW.
Results
• Experiments showed Increased Oil Recovery in both the
secondary mode as well as the tertiary mode by LSW.
• Not all experiments showed increase in oil recovery through
LSW.
• In some experiments, LSW attributed to increased
production only in secondary recovery and not in tertiary
recovery. 8
Low Salinity Water Flooding
(LSW)
Interpretation & Further Studies
• When Hydratable Clays are present, fresh water produced
more recovery than brine.
• Clay swelling causes plugging of pore space available to oil
and water.
• Some authors attributed this to exchange of Cation
Exchange.
• Cation Exchange alters Wettability
Mixed Wet Water Wet
System System
9
Low Salinity Water Flooding
(LSW)
• Not all experiments increased Oil recovery by LSW.
• Some factors had been controlling the effectiveness of LSW.
• Since the factors are not exactly know, assumptions and
proposals are made by various scientists.
• This makes LSW an Immature yet very effective technique
for increased oil recovery.
• The studies had been done on Sandstone and Carbonate
reservoirs.
10
Factors affecting LSW
1. Mineral Surface
• Injection of low-salinity water enhances oil recovery only in cores
containing clay minerals.
• Clay minerals are often characterized as cation exchange materials.
• Due to structural charge imbalances, the edge surface produces a
negative charge on clay surface.
• To attain a neutral charge, these negatively charged sites attract
positively charged ions from the surrounding pore fluid.
• Cations in the solution are attracted and held by weak cohesive bonding
forces, including electrostatic and van der Waals forces, and depending
on the conditions, cations are exchanged and not held permanently.
• Due to this Cation exchange, wettability is altered causing the system to
become more water-wet.
11
Factors affecting LSW
2. Brine
• Experiments have showed that low salinity water produces better
results in oil recovery than high salinity Water.
3. Oil
• Refined Oil didn’t produce as good results as with crude oil in LSW.
• This suggests that the presence of polar components in oil is
necessary for the LSW to attain an increased oil recovery.
4. Temperature
• An increased temperature favours waterflooding but this effect is
not pre dominant in oil recovery during LSW.
5. Wettability
• Water wet system produces more oil than oil wet system.
However, mixed wet system is observed to produce less residual
oil saturation and hence preferable.
12
Factors affecting LSW
6. Connate Water Saturation
• Oil recovery during the secondary recovery stage reached a
maximum for cores with the highest connate water salinity
and the lowest connate water saturation.
• In the tertiary scenario, the highest oil recovery was
obtained when both the salinity and the saturation of the
connate water were low.
13
Low Salinity Water Flooding
(LSW)
• We have known the factors which affect or can effect LSW
but the questions is How does the LSW increases oil
recovery compared to High Salinity Water Flooding?
• Various scientists have performed multiple experiments but
the exact mechanism to control the LSW is not understood.
• The variety of circumstances under which LSW may or may
not be observed suggests that more than one mechanism
may be at play.
• Therefore, various mechanisms are proposed for improving
oil recovery with low salinity waterflooding.
14
Proposed Mechanisms
Improving oil recovery with low salinity water flooding
1. Fines Migration
• Presence of potentially mobile fines (mixed wet clays)
15
Proposed Mechanisms
Improving oil recovery with low salinity water flooding
1. Fines Migration
• Presence of potentially mobile fines (mixed wet clays)
16
Proposed Mechanisms
Improving oil recovery with low salinity water flooding
1. Fines Migration
17
Proposed Mechanisms
Improving oil recovery with low salinity water flooding
2. pH Effect
Following conditions must satisfy to observe pH effect
1. Clay must be present in sandstone (A negatively charged surface)
2. Presence of Polar Components in Oil (to attach at clay surface)
3. Formation Water must contain cations such as Ca2+ (to attach to clay
surface)
• The Basic mechanism is the desorption of organic material
(oil) from clay surface by local change in pH
• Clay acts as a cation exchanges with relatively large surface
area
• Low Salinity Water causes pH imbalance and initiates cation
exchange changing wettability of the rock system.
18
Proposed Mechanisms
Improving oil recovery with low salinity water flooding
2. pH Effect
19
Proposed Mechanisms
Improving oil recovery with low salinity water flooding
3. Multicomponent Ionic Exchange (MIE)
• Desorption of both positively and negatively charged organic compounds when
low-salinity brine is injected
• Connate brine should contain divalent cations (Ca2+)
• Eight adsorption mechanisms for organic compounds come into pay to explain
MIE effect.
20
Proposed Mechanisms
Improving oil recovery with low salinity water flooding
3. Multicomponent Ionic Exchange (MIE)
21
Proposed Mechanisms
Improving oil recovery with low salinity water flooding
4. Extension of Electrical Double Layer
• When a negatively charged clay particle in the porous rock
structure of an oil-bearing reservoir is immersed in water, an
electrical double layer forms around it. The double layers
consist of an inner adsorbed layer of positive ions and an outer
diffuse layer of mainly negative ions.
• The thickness of the double layers depends on the ion
concentration in the surrounding water. Under high-salinity
water containing more ions, the double layer is more compact,
but when low-salinity water is introduced, the double layer
tends to expand (explained in notes why)
• The expanded layer causes the oil to have week attractive
forces with the clay particles and hence is easily desorbed and
displaced by LSW. 22
Proposed Mechanisms
Improving oil recovery with low salinity water flooding
4. Extension of Electrical Double Layer
23
Proposed Mechanisms
Improving oil recovery with low salinity water flooding
4. Extension of Electrical Double Layer
24
Proposed Mechanisms
Improving oil recovery with low salinity water flooding
5. Wettability Alteration
• Wettability of the system is changed to water wet state.
• Divalent cations (Ca2+, Mg2+) plays a major role in wettability alteration.
6. Osmosis
• Clay acts as a semi permeable membrane.
• LSW creates osmotic pressure that enhances water drive.
7. Salting Effect
• Salting in implies that the polar components are more soluble in water when
the ionic strength of the water is low.
• Salting out means that polar components are less soluble in water when the
ionic strength of the water is high.
• LSW has less ionic strength and hence adsorb oil causing it to desorb from
clay surface and hence its mobility is increased (increased recovery).
25
Proposed Mechanisms
Improving oil recovery with low salinity water flooding
Summary
26
Laboratory Investigation and Analysis
Several Laboratory experimentation with different ion concentration and
different subject rocks were done and following analysis were made.
• Initial wettability was dominantly controlled by initial concentration of
Ca2+ ions
• Wettability change was considered the main reason for improved oil
recovery in LSW
• The effectiveness of LSW was measured in terms of IFT, Zeta Potential
and Contact Angle for Wettability observation.
• No significant reduction in IFT was observed with change in salinity
• The zeta potential and contact angle measurements confirmed that
wettability alteration was the main mechanism for improving oil recovery
in both carbonate and sandstone samples.
• The authors noticed a shift in wettability from intermediate wetting
conditions to preferentially water-wet conditions in the presence of sea
water diluted ten-fold for both rock types.
27
Laboratory Investigation and Analysis
1. IFT (Interfacial Tension) Test
28
Laboratory Investigation and Analysis
2. Contact Angle Test Studies
29
Laboratory Investigation and Analysis
3. Zeta Potential
30
Laboratory Investigation and Analysis
Oil Recovery vs Salinity
31
Laboratory Investigation and Analysis
Oil Recovery vs Salinity
32
Laboratory Investigation and Analysis
Oil Recovery vs Salinity
33
Laboratory Investigation and Analysis
Conclusion
1. Low-salinity water recovered more oil in the secondary mode than
higher salinity water. However, in the tertiary mode, no oil was
recovered, and therefore, cation exchange was proposed as the major
mechanism responsible for improving the oil recovery.
2. Cation exchange led to a reduction in electrostatic attractive forces
between oil and rock surface charges, resulting in a change in
wettability.
3. An effluent analysis using ICP confirmed the reduction in ion
concentrations after the injection of low-salinity water
34
Laboratory Investigation and Analysis
35
Field Investigation and Analysis
• LSW has been recently applied in the Omar oil field in Syria
• Results indicate that a recovery increment of 10–15 % OOIP
• Result was attributed to the change in wettability from oil wet to water
wet
• The change in wettability was evidenced by an observation of a “dual-
step” in the water cut, which is a known indicator of wettability alteration
• Decrease in water cut from 95% to 92%
• 10% of the additional oil was recovered from the zone that was swept
with low-salinity water
• Significant drop in residual oil saturation of 41% to 28% was observed
36
Field Investigation and Analysis
37
Conclusion
1. LSW is an immature EOR technique with considerable potential for
increasing oil recovery, as verified through various laboratory studies
and field applications. The incremental recovery reported in the
literature ranges from 0 to 15% OIIP depending on the rock and fluid
properties and reservoir conditions.
2. Several recovery mechanisms have been proposed by various
researchers; however, no consensus exists as to which mechanisms are
dominant in improving oil recovery during low-salinity water injection
3. The provision of a low-salinity water supply in a field can act
synergistically with other water-based EOR processes such as
alkaline/surfactant/polymer flooding with the potential for even
greater incremental recoveries.
4. Wettability alteration due to cation exchange is the most observed
phenomenon behind increased oil recovery during LSW
38
Thank You
Questions ?
39
